Surface plasmon on the metal nanofilament excitation by a quantum oscillator

TL;DR

This paper models surface plasmon waves on a metal nanofilament using quantum electrodynamics and demonstrates a significant enhancement in spontaneous emission rate due to interaction with a quantum oscillator.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum electrodynamics framework for surface plasmons on nanofilaments and quantifies the Purcell factor increase in emission rate.

Findings

Purcell factor up to 10^5 times

Quantum oscillator interaction enhances emission

Surface plasmon behavior described quantum mechanically

Abstract

Surface waves on a thin metal filament are described in terms of quantum electrodynamics. The interaction of surface waves with a quantum oscillator is discussed in the dipole approximation. The increase in the spontaneous emission rate of the excited quantum oscillator, the so called Purcell factor, is evaluated to be as high as ten to the five times.